Posted
by
Unknown Lameron Tuesday March 06, 2012 @06:17PM
from the retrofitted-with-lasers dept.

S810 writes with an excerpt from an article on the X-37B in at Discovery News: "The military won't say what it has been doing with its experimental miniature space shuttle, but the pilotless spaceship, known as the X-37B, has been in orbit for a year now. The 29-foot robotic spacecraft, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, or OTV, was launched on March 5, 2011, on a follow-up flight to extend capabilities demonstrated by a sister ship during a 244-day debut mission in 2010. 'We are very pleased with the results of ongoing X-37B experiments,' Tom McIntyre, with the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office..."

1. No idea, payload bay is 2.1 × 1.2 m and its launch weight is 5000 kg2. Hundreds of millions to billions - "Details on the funding level remain within the Air Force's classified budget request"3. Launch vehicle is an Atlas V (~$13,000 per kg to LEO - $65 million per launch)4. Yes, supposedly, OTV-1 came back, has not launched again yet, OTV-2 is still up there